What makes a cup- you!

What makes a cup- you!

We've covered a great deal on what goes into making a cup over the last couple of months. Before we finish it off, we remembered we've neglected perhaps the most important part- you! After all, what's the point of going through all that hard work if there's no one at the end to enjoy it? We've covered a lot of things to do with this over the years, so today we'll be giving you a brief overview and welcoming you to go back and expand your knowledge through previous related blogs- we can only fit in so much to one at a time!

Perceptions

How we perceive our favourite drinks has been the subject of a number of studies and tests over the years. Taste is an obvious one, which also ties in with our sense of smell, as we discovered here. Sight is important too, not only of the drink but even of the cup that it is in. In this blog, we looked at the effect of the colour of a cup on the perception of the taste of hot chocolate. We did another in a similar vein when a different group tried the same thing with coffee. Whilst it has a big impact on our taste, we also found out how our sense of smell is closely linked with and has a powerful effect on our ability to recall memories.

Boon or bane

Our senses are just one aspect of how we interact with our drinks. Ingredients within the drinks interact with us too- perhaps the most well known is that stalwart of the bleary eyed worker, caffeine. We examined how it produces its well known boost to our system in this blog- along with the caveat of what happens if you have too much! We looked at some other aspects of caffeine here too. One of those was how best to tap into its ability to perk us up with the coffee nap, and also the research looking at how it might not be the caffeine in coffee that helps us stave off our peckishness.

With peckishness in mind, we've looked at other effects tea, coffee and cocoa have on our waistlines. Coffee has become increasingly something of a risk for a calorie binge due to the extravagant ways we order it, as we saw here. Keeping to a simple black coffee or pot of tea can be a better way to moderate your appetite, with the added benefit of that caffeine boost, as we argued here. Caffeine isn't the only boon on offer of course. There have been several studies looking into how cocoa affects us, an important one being its potential to improve our memory and cognition.

Be mindful

Perhaps more importantly than deriving any nutritional benefit from these drinks is how the simple act of making them can have a positive effect on our state of mind. The routine of putting on the kettle, putting a tea bag in a cup and adding milk to taste, while simple, is a good thing to do. This routine has been heightened to an art form elsewhere. Japan is famous for its long standing tradition of the tea ceremony. Instilling calmness is an integral part of the experience, turning it into an exercise in mindfulness. The concept of wabi sabi and the act of appreciating simple objects and their imperfections certainly strikes a chord with the act of mindfulness

So there you have it folks. As we said when we started this series, there is a huge amount that goes into making a cup of your favourite brew, but it looks like we can confidently say- given the amount we have written about it over the years- the most important bit of all is certainly you!